I must say, my entry into the Sports Clinic yesterday was so much better than the first time, I may win a performance award! But something was missing.
Yesterday, we were nearly the first appointment of the day. There were NO real GIMPS in the audience to watch my performance. Just a smattering of middle age people in street shoes! They weren’t even ATTEMPTING to look injured! Not ONE band-aid on a cheek, NO nothing! Why were they there if not at least to watch people like my hobble in.

In three weeks, it hasn’t been difficult to see that my winning any applause for my lobby appearance would involve some smooth skills since it’s a clean simple break. I won’t have the huge braces, big pins through the bone, wheelchair, NO “special effects OR affects” to help my performance be persuasive to win the 2009 Portland Broken Limb Patient Award”. I must rely on charm and a good audience who will understand what I’ve suffered.

I wore a bright white outer coat to make sure the light would reflect the lovely grey of the crutches, I’d put on some skin cream for a bit of color on my now in March-Oregon Pillsbury-Dough-Boy shade of skin, I had trimmed my hair, taken a bath, and looked just spiffy for my entrance, and just “posers” were sitting there! What a disappointment, but I maintained my acting face, because one never knews what director is sitting there secretly searching for the next big star in his General Hospital Episode involving Clarita’s shoving her new paramour out the window and the broken leg takes center stage in that episode.

Well, anyway, I proudly stepped up to the counter and a cheery eyed young assistant checked me in, and just as I’m gamely turning around to make sure I sit where my performance walk can best be appreciated, my name is called! What? I don’t get to stage this better than that? Oh well.

I, and Rodger, were escorted down the hall to X-Ray. Why is it that the X-Ray units are ALWAYS the furthest thing away from where you are at? In this clinic, the lobby’s on the south end of the building. X-Ray at the north end. In the hospital, the Emergency Room was in the WEST end of the big hospital, while X-Ray was somewhere 3 or 4 blocks east of there I was sure.

A Cheery young immigrant technician prepared me asking me to expose myself, er my leg for her. She smilingly asked “What happened to you?” I tried to quickly explain how my “partner” who she’d just seen and I ended up on a dance floor on THAT particular night (anniversary) and she said, “Oh, I don’t understand what you mean.” OK, so THAT little tale didn’t go over very well. She cheerily finished, and escorted us to the patient room where one can read all the medical diplomas of Dr. Ira Weintraub. Wait. I’m seeing Dr. Lamprecht! I want to see HIS medical diplomas. You never want to have your leg sawed off if you see an Orthopedic Diploma from the University of Haiti, right?

So, we waited, sweating out wondering if he would walk in with a chain saw, and a bucket of wet plaster, some gauze while whistling “Oh What a Beautiful Morning!” NO, young Dr. Lamprecht walked in as cool and smart as he seemed he was the first time. A quick study of the X-Rays, and he called us up to review right along-side, a great doc/patient feature, I thought, we found that recovery is ON schedule. There IS some new bone growth at the fracture point.

So my work on act two, the first 3 weeks after the fall is finished. Now, I prepare for act three, the last visit with the Dr. three weeks from now. I must now begin to wean myself off the crutches, begin hobbling around dragging a big heavy boot. THAT was encouraging, but I sensed that he was actually planning to never see me again at some point. Seems unfair, doesn’t it? We liked him, and it seems an occasional visit just to see how he’s doing would fit in our social calendar just fine, but NO, we’re to be “booted” out just like all the other “regular” “boring” people. Apparently, my performance wasn’t stellar enough, eh?

Okay. I gave up, we left, made our appointment for Monday April 20, same time and drove just a few blocks to “The Stepping Stone Cafe” to have a fabulous breakfast at one of the LAST tiny diners that’s been open non-stop for 60 years here. We came home, I, in good cheer, immediately booted out of the house into a shed, got out two more shepherd hooks, placed them at the deck, loaded up bird feeders with thistle, and more seed. (I saw House Finches and Siskiins for the first time). I took the Waste Can out to the road, washed some clothes. By then, I was ready for a sit down.

If you’re a voyeur (of birds), you will love this: RAPTOR CAM“. It’s a combined project of the Audubon Society here and a TV station… the live cam shows a lovely large Red-Tailed Hawk who’s been sitting on 3 eggs now over two weeks, so the hatching will be happening any day.
It is FUN to occasionally see a tiny bit of bloody remains of something food item the hawk scored on her rare searches for food. (there’s very short ad you must listen to at first, then you can leave your browser open as long as you want to watch this beautiful animal nest…or maybe something more VERY soon).

On the sad side of nature, the timing for most raptors to have kids to feed is set for when the big migrations of all area songbirds arrive. I don’t think I need to say anymore on the subject.

I DO HOPE all’s well with our friends. I will be BACK in public soon, you better watch out.

MATT TAIBBI has been writing a few years, and I mean all around the world.
His new article in ROLLING STONE has put him on all the talk shows, and THIS article, for me, has explained EVERYTHING I have come to believe in the past couple of years. I DO HOPE, more than I have ever wanted anything, that EVERYONE in this country, especially conservatives will read this: THE BIG TAKEOVER. Maybe THEN they will begin to understand what their Capitalist buddies have truly been doing to them the last 30 years.

Here’s a bit from the Bush Years about 9-11 and how that was manipulated into a WAR we’re still in the middle of:

I am ordering this book now……….. The Great Derangement
The Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire.

But a MUCH more thorough and wonderful review of the book was written here at the DAILY KOS.

I’ll be chauffeured to Orthopedic Surgeon Doctor Lamprecht’s office at the sports Injury clinic tomorrow morning by my gentleman mate, the generous Rodger. It will have been 3 weeks and one day since the disco floor came calling upon my fibula.
I will sign in, be told to sit in a large lobby and try to stare down other clumsy patients who will also be there with assorted attachments to their bodies. They’ll be pretending to read any number of ridiculous irrelevant magazines that somehow always appear at these places. Occasionally, all those seated quietly draw in a breath as a sturdy nurse appears out of a hallway and calls out a name. For all but the named patient, a little “watch this” show begins. The poor injured gets up and hobbles off and everyone thinks, “I can crutch-walk better than that.”

Then, finally, the name, “Mark” is called. I will rise strong and sound, and with any luck make it clear down the hall so gracefully that everyone will “ooh and aaah”, impressed by my manly gait.

Dr. Lamprecht will poke, prod, ask questions, take magic pictures and finally return just like Dr. Hunk always does on General Hospital and smile at me, telling me all is well. You see. I believe there will be a good progress report. Hopefully it means some walking and physical therapy for the leg muscle.

Actually I think some of that will happen tomorrow. The swelling is all but gone, it’s been a couple days since any pain med was imbibed, I have walked some in the house without the crutches, etc etc.

SO. Have you heard the NEW Sound of OIL Company ads? They’re all trying to sound like they’re “born-again” now, and pure. Green colors, pretty pictures, and new wording …..

Make sure you listen carefully. In the new Chevron Oil ad I heard this ONE sentence flow by, “It’s time to put aside our differences……………..” GEE! I wonder how we came to have differences, eh? Better watch your wallet, I tell ya. They’ve created a “Will You Join Us?” Propoganda marketing scheme acting as if they were the Savior of the planet.

If only the gays truly HAD an agenda, maybe we TOO could ask everyone to put our differences aside and let us get married.

This video is self explanatory, but I hope it would inspire anyone on the west coast to put out a feeder or two in at LEAST March/April every spring to help these fabulous little noisy Rufus birds get north to their breeding grounds…. Their population has been declining, and it can ONLY help.

FOR US……..We’ve graduated from the 2 baby feeders for the Anna’s that were up all winter to 7 now, and ALL of them are being used with new arrivals every day (NOT like that video, of course). IT is SO fun to be near one of these feeders when the Rufus are here….the Anna’s won’t challenge you, but a Rufus will get right up into your face if he thinks you’re trying to get to his food. Instead of a glass of feed a week, we’re up to a quart already, and I’ll have 10 feeders out by weekend…. some further from the house near trees they will hopefully be nesting in. WHY so many? BECAUSE………….

The gorgeous males are good for only ONE thing: Breeding. They offer NO help in building nests or raising young. What Do they do? They arrive first in the nesting area, get the food sources sited, picked out as their own, and spend MOST of their day just sitting waiting for females to arrive. They attempt mating and/or driving any others away from their feeders. ONCE the mating’s completed, the males will be the first to leave. They return EARLY back to Mexico ……. how’s that for family values, eh?

**That video shows purely migratory females seen in Waldport (about 200 miles south of Portland on the coast) just this past week …..the gals are moving north to nest, mate, and raise young from near our latitude all the way to Northern BC. A few make it to Alaska. We love ’em.
Thanks to Nancy G for the link news!

With that in mind, we hope to get a few more pictures this year…..there’s nothing like seeing a baby just fledged coming to terms with “there’s a world out there”:
Or the May evenings that a cold front arrives unexpectedly:
OR the beauty of a Rufus Humminbird in the sun:

Any benefits to being laid up? Why YES! You can absolutely embrace laying around, feasting, feeling debauched, as gays are said to do so well, and with the grace of friends you just might luck into being loaned the entire ‘I Claudius” BBC series on DVD. I had never watched it at all, but am SO glad friends provided this masterpiece of entertainment. I know it’s 32 years old now, but it seems timeless.

In 1978, the BBC was at their peak of producing master series of Theater, and this must be one of the finest.
It is absolutely as magnificent as any Grand Opera though without the music. At the top pillar of Roman society were the ruling Caesars. All the time they were ruling, there’s incest, murder, rape, sexual orgies, men & women dressed as scantily as we want to see, lust, slavery, torture, LOVE, feasting, jealousy, rage, loss, loneliness, banishment, soothsayers, myths, and total mayhem going on. ALL revolving around the absolute FACTS of Roman History at the time of Julius Caesar , an advanced society. There ARE some strong recognizable similarities to what I see happening HERE today….. Hm. For that matter, in the heyday of the Russian Empire? Or how about the French Aristocracy? Or, let’s get right to it: ALL the British Monarchies for a 1000 years.

The cast was made up of some of the finest English Theater had to offer, and gave the first public appearances of such names as: Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Patrick Stewart, George Baker. If you want to read plot and episode details take a few hours and study this at the “I Claudius Project” Site.

If you have never seen this 13-part series, I highly recommend it not just because you’ll re-learn some of your history lessons, you’ll revel in this tale enjoying all that delicious decadence can offer.

= = = = = =

On a lighter note, in this weeks’ “Malheur Enterprise, my home town cowboy newspaper these two items from police blotter:
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1:31 a.m. March 15, Harper: 911 caller requests help as father is intoxicated and breaking things in the house.

6:43 p.m. March 15, Nyssa: Responding party advises that a domestic occurred and a child was involved.

12:45 p.m. March 10, Nyssa: Reports that whle passing an address, he was bitten by a dog and has had problems there in the past.

10:14 a.m. March 3, Vale: Caller advises that a bit semi north of Vale is losing his load and not sure if he’s aware of it.
= = = = = =

a “deductible” is for in our “for-profit” health system. We chose $250 as the annual deductible for each of us.

As a result: AETNA so kindly consented to pay the selected Orthopedic Surgeon the cost of my emergency office call — with a BROKEN LEG — (minus the $25. copay of course), but they REFUSE to pay the cost of the Boot-Brace ($217) required to help the leg heal. That goes to the annual deductible. Cute, eh? The beauty of our health system: built for profit.

So I suppose I COULD have been carried out of the Doctor’s office if I didn’t have the $217. to cover the cost of that boot? I could just lay in a bed for 6 weeks if I don’t have insurance and no cash? Lovely.

How do I know I’m beginning to recover? I’m now wanting to move and get out, but can’t yet….

I KNOW as one recovers from any injury or illness, you get a little impatient as pain goes away. Each time I think I’ve “learned” that patience thing, I push myself a tiny bit and it pushes back.

I’m just now able to put a tiny bit of weight on the leg …..but if I do, I can expect to take a pain-med within a few hours. Oh well, I’m down to two pain pills a day………and that’s progress.

I HATE taking pain meds….you’re wide-awake, you take that pill, and life drifts into a bit of a haze. One inevitably ends up on the pillow laden couch reading then dozing….but, granted, you feel better later. THIS will go ON for four more weeks? Hm. P A T I E N C E.

Oh well……..I look out the window and see spring announcing yard tasks that NEED mending, a lawn needing mowing for the first time, winter crap IN the lawn for clearing, mole hills to be gotten rid of, moving more wood, getting mulch spread, exercising a dog, cooking, cleaning, and living. I guess it will all wait. I’m beginning to look forward to that little Vacation in June…………………..

It’s been 40 years since I was last an invalid with the other leg being smashed up…………how healthy I know it is that most of that has truly been forgotten. THIS time it’s a minor break and yet I am newly empathetic to anyone being an invalid on any level.

This week, we saw a couple little gay movies we probably wouldn’t have seen except for one thing: ME: “You know, you wouldn’t TREAT me this way if I weren’t on crutches!” HIM: But ya are, Mark, ya are!

NUMBER ONE:SO. On an entertainment note, when you want a couple of hours of light viewing, go rent “29th and Gay“ a truly and simply cute love story about a shy cute nebbish in Los Angeles trying to find love. Lowest of Budgets, and STILL cute. Loved it. (a long review is found at the link above)

Here’s the trailer:

Aaaah! I REMEMBER falling in love……….gee, seems I wasn’t that different than this guy. THIS IS A MOVIE I would recommend to ANYONE I know!!! It’s just cute.

Numero DOS:

Next? If you can just enjoy a story about overbearing mothers in a screwball comedy, a Spanish sub-titled film, go rent “QUEENS“. That link will take you to watch the trailer.

The film revolves around the day Gay Marriage were legalized in Spain in a public ceremony, many couples were married. The title reveals, however, that this story is MORE about the overbearing Mothers than the gay boys. The NY Times review is HERE and the comment below their own tiny review is more revealing….the film was a favorite at the SF Gay Film Festival.

Neither of these films are new: 2005. Oh well. If I wasn’t on these………………..